Search Engine Marketing

What Is Search Engine Marketing?

More and more companies, large and small, are embracing the concept of search marketing. That's exciting progress for what is still a fairly new industry, But there's still quite a bit of confusion about the different types of search marketing and how companies should decide where to put their marketing dollars.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is defined as the total process of using search engines to send targeted visitors to your Web site. Search Engine Marketing involves absolutely everything about your marketing via search.

  • Natural Search Engine Optimization

  • Paid Search Advertising

  • Search Engine Promotion

  • Local Search

  • Directory & Vertical Portals


Optimize or advertise?

We get asked all the time whether it’s better to optimize a website or advertise it. And the answer is always the same – it depends. It depends on your goals, budget and timetable.

Today, most marketers realize that website optimization and search advertising is not an “either/or” proposition. To reach the greatest number of searchers, whenever possible, you should blend both natural and paid listings in order to capitalize on their complimentary strengths and weaknesses for a well-rounded and maximally effective marketing campaign.

Generally speaking, optimization and link building are long-term strategic tools, whereas paid search advertising and search promotion can yield short-term campaign results. There are many ways of increasing the number of targeted visitors your website received from searches. You can optimize your website, get listings in directories and portals, gain traffic from optimized press releases or bid for positions in PPC search engines.

In developing your strategy, we look at what methods are most likely to generate the best business results given your budget in terms of money, time and resources. Not all methods will give the same quality or quantity of visitors in the same time frame.

Every company is different. The overall strategy and specific tactics will depend on business goals, budget and timeframe.


Did You Know?



  • Advertisers in the US spent $5.75 billion on Search Engine Marketing (SEM) in 2005 – 44% more than in 2004. 83% of SEM spending in 2005 was on paid search advertising.


  • The number of searches totaled about 5.1 billion in December 2005, an increase of 55% from the almost 3.3 billion searches made in December 2004




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